Writer's Diary
Inside of all complexity is simplicity. A complex reveals a simple. AN Whitehead wrote: seek simplicity and distrust it. It's as if to say that every surface, every simple surface betrays a further level of complexity, and every further level of complexity gives way to simplicity. Poincaré wrote that the cliché that “nature loves simplicity” is a lie—except for the fact that science would be impossible without it; science exists in pursuit of a simple explanation. And even today's therapeutic self-talk tends to reduce to something simple: trauma, a bad relationship, a bad relationship with a parent, etc, as if the complexity of our behavior and ideas and experiences stemmed from one simple single trauma event. That's a convenient narrative, but it probably isn't true; it provides a sense of order without a complete explanation. Trauma, for instance, seems